Valhalla
by Grimmaced
Summary: Tatsumi was conscripted into the Imperial Army a year before he was destined to leave. Forced to rise through the ranks until he was placed under the direct tutelage of the most powerful old man he'd ever seen. Great... AU.
1. Conscripted

I do not own Akame Ga Kill.

Hi! I hope the story summary piqued your interest, because if it didn't then I don't know what did (It took me soooo long to figure out what to write as a summary). This story is hopefully one of the first of this idea, but if it isn't then oh well. I really wish I had a proof reader despite not knowing how that worked.

Enjoy reading.

* * *

(In the eastern plains of the empire.)

The sound of clattering hooves and rhythmic stomping sounded out against the cobblestone path as her large contingent of men headed toward the eastern empire. She spear-headed the large group of people, her subordinates following closely behind. "I still have no idea why we're heading east…" One of her subordinates said, "We're going east to see if we can broker a deal with the leader of the Eastern Cities Daidara." Another one of her subordinates said in reply.

"What for? Are they posing a threat? Why don't we just crush them?" Daidara asked, smirking.

"We've done this before Deidara and every time you ask the same question."

"Yeah because every time before this, we tried being 'political' but ended killin' em' all anyway. So why not save them the time and just cut to chase." Daidara said, holding a double-sided axe up to his face, smirking at his own reflection. "And besides, Belvaac hasn't seen some action is a while."

"You're impossible Daidara." Nyau spoke after a small session of quietness.

"Says the person who collects fucking faces. You don't get a say." She smiled as Nyau and Daidara began to argue. Her smile soon faded though as she heard a yell of her name.

"Esdeath-Sama!" The yell came from the back of the herd of horses and men stomping along the cobble road. The rider came forth before having to force his horse into a stop as a double sided axe came into his view. The man was breathing somewhat heavily despite the horse doing most of his travelling, the man watched as Esdeath spun her horse around to face him, his entire body stilled for whatever reason he didn't know, what he did know was that just the mere presence of this woman had given him a spine tingling chill.

"Yes?" She asked politely, smirking at the man. "What is it you need?"

He didn't speak for a bit, mainly because of the giant double sided axe being spun around in front of him and his horse but also wondering how a woman could have such an inviting appearance but then give off an aura that was unpleasant.

He opened his mouth to speak but it seemed as if his tongue was caught in his throat.

"Spit it out boy." A tall grey haired man spoke, watching as the man swallowed his saliva before looking back to Esdeath, a smirk still present on her beautiful face. Composing himself he reached into his satchel and pulled out an envelope that had a wax seal with a shield stamp on it and handed it to her. "It's a message to you from his highness."

"A message from the emperor?" Taking the envelope from the man, she looked at the official seal before tearing it open from the top and reading the message within. "This is interesting, very interesting." Re-folding the paper and placing it back into the envelope, she looked back to the man adjusting his satchel. "You may leave now." She said spinning her horse around and continued on the way she had intended.

"Didn't you hear her or are you deaf? Get out of here!" Daidara yelled at the man as he turned his horse round and began a gallop in the direction he came. Esdeath listened to the fading sound of the man's horse's footsteps. She looked down to her hand to the envelope, staring at the seal of the emperor , the request was strange, mostly because she had never been asked of this before, neither had she heard of anything like this before. Obviously the minister was behind this in an effort to strengthen their military force but she didn't know how it would go down. Calling forth three of her men, she waited for them to approach her before relaying the message within the orders she had been given.

"What I am going to ask of you three, is a direct order from the emperor, not me, but if you do not wish to take on the task, tell me now and you shall re-join the others in marching."

Not hearing a single word of pleading, she smiled, her soldiers knew of her belief of the weak were destined to die in order to make way for someone strong, and her soldiers wanted to prove they weren't part of the weak. "Good, now the mission's orders are written down on in this envelope, read it and follow the instructions. You head to the northern tribes so you may want to get a head start. I want you three back before we reach the Eastern Cities, which should be in about a week. Do this and I promise you riches beyond your own imagination." She spoke, getting a nod from the three, she handed the envelope to one of the three and they began a jog back to their horses before setting off towards the northern tribes.

"What did his majesty ask of you Esdeath-sama?" River asked, his horse coming up next to hers.

"Something very interesting River. This is going to possibly change everything."

OoO

(Three days after leaving – Northern Tribes, Tatsumi's Village)

The three soldiers stomped their way through the accumulated snow, every step they would go ankle deep into the snow, they had been walking for maybe a few hours through what seemed like endless white trying to find this village they had been told about by the other northern villages that they had visited. They had forgone their regular military clothing and instead swapped for a much more practical choice in choosing black parka's, long pants and boots.

They had forgone horses a long while back as the horses found it rather difficult to trudge through the thick layers of snow and without anyway to insulate themselves and despite how powerful an animal the horse was, it would be easy for them to drop right into the snow and die. They couldn't have that, they needed them to reach the Eastern Cities before this week was done, _he _needed to get to the Eastern Cities before the week was done.

The snow was not heavy, but rather gentle, cold but beautiful. How anyone was able to live out here was beyond him, but he guessed if someone like him could live in the Eastern Cities where most of the terrain was hot, seemingly inhabitable endless sand then it was more than likely plausible that people were able to live &amp; thrive here in the beautifully, desolate snowy tundra.

As much as he thought that this place was beautiful and a sight to behold, he was starting to get snow into his boots and into places that he never really thought that snow would be able to reach, and it was really starting to grate on his nerves that he had no real way to get warm aside from trying to trudge through the thick snow. He'd probably be running to keep his blood pumping and his body warm, but it wasn't possible with the snow as well as the fact that his two companions were beginning to slow, the accumulated snow seemingly taking its hold on them. "You two hurry it up!" He yelled behind him, they were placed under his command as his subordinates by Esdeath herself. They were new and even though they went through the correct military training, this whole experience was new to them, this is where they would be tested. "If either of you- Hell even both of you drop, you're being left! You understand me!" He yelled again, adjusting the sword that was swung across his back.

"Yes sir!" They barked back their hands hooking into their back packs, heads low and began to stomp harder into the icy snow.

Waiting for them to catch up to him, they fell into line behind him following his large lunging steps. "Cadence!" He barked in order. "O'Hail O'Hail O'Infantry!"

"O'Hail O'Hail O'Infantry!" The two yelled in time with each other.

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be!" – "There's nowhere else I'd rather be!"

"They took away my little shack!" – "They took away my little shack!"

"But now I carry it on my back!" – "But now I carry it on my back!"

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be!" – "There's nowhere else I'd rather be!"

"Than the Empire's Infantry!" – "Than the Empire's Infantry!"

The determination that they held in their eyes as they sang the song on repeat whilst marching through the snow was admirable. He wouldn't allow them to fall behind and what better way to get soldiers up and running than a cadence that most if not all within Esdeath's army knew by heart? Most of Esdeath's Army consisted of people out of the Infantry as she believed them to be the strongest in heart and mind with very few who were brought in that were not a part of the infantry such as her Three Beasts.

"Cadence clear! Cadence count!" He yelled cutting into their synchronized chanting. "Sound off!"

"1 2 – 3 4…"

OoO

(Tatsumi's Village)

"Swing Tatsumi!" A large gruff burly man yelled sitting on the stump of a tree, watching as the two kids sparred with each other. "You gonna let little ol' Ieyasu beat you around like that? Come on!"

The boy in question stepped back from his opponent, taking in large intakes of air as he lifted the sword up in front of him before sending a glare to the eye patch wearing man. "Shut up old man." Tatsumi snarled, and then refocused back onto Ieyasu who looked just as exhausted as he did. They were sparring as per what the man on the tree stump had them do on occasion; he looked behind the large man to see a girl with dark hair watching them spar as she held her bow ready to launch an arrow into the tree, she nodded at him, compelling him to continue the spar.

"Boy you don't tell me to shut up or will I make you do the Spartan training again?" The large man said, enjoying the cringing face of the brown haired boy. "Now spar."

Tatsumi gripped his sword handle hard before running at Ieyasu who directed his sword away from his body with his axe before smacking Tatsumi across the face with the butt end of the axe. "Come on Sumi-chan, at the rate you're going it seems I'm gonna get famous all by myself." Ieyasu gloated as Tatsumi held a hand to his cheek and spat out a small bit of blood. He entered his stance again staring Ieyasu down and rushed him again.

"Again?" Ieyasu questioned rhetorically as Tatsumi tried the same thing before he countered the same way again, but as he directed Tatsumi's sword away he didn't expect Tatsumi to follow through with his sword and be hit with a spinning elbow. Ieyasu stumbled backward as he felt the dizziness take over his mind as he fell back onto his behind, holding his head.

"That was good Tatsumi!" The large gruff man yelled ecstatically, before coming over to check over Ieyasu to make sure the boy was fine. Getting a nod from the axe user, the military veteran walked over to Tatsumi, he placed a large hand onto the much smaller boys shoulder. "That's what I like to see, improvisation." The man laughed heartily before turning around to face Ieyasu who was being helped up by Sayo. "Alright you too, training for today is finished." Both Sayo and Ieyasu opened their mouths to speak before the man cut in. "And no, Tatsumi can't hang out with you guys today, I'm running low on hands today at the blacksmith, so I need him." The ex-military man said, arms crossing over his chest. "Alright, go home. I want you two here in the morn-"

"-Hideki."

The large man known as Hideki looked over to the familiar voice and instantly recognized the village chief. Smiling Hideki stopped what he was talking about earlier and walked over to greet the elder man. "Chief. How are you?" The one eyed man said, latching onto the elder man in a hug.

The chief returned the gesture before smiling at the three kids behind the larger man. "I am well, Hideki, as I hope you are as well."

"Me? I'm great! Can't say the same for my little students though, we just finished training." Hideki gibed as he heard the three behind him growl.

"That is good, very good." The chief nodded, "but that is not what I am here for."

"Oh?"

"I need your help with something Hideki, rather urgently… If you would be so kind, I would explain on the way." The chief of the village said, turning around to begin walking back toward the village.

"Well yeah but, what about the kids?" Hideki asked.

"They shall come with us, but they will not listen to what we talk about." The elder man began to walk back toward the village again.

"Alright, we're doing follow the leader. Treat it as training, stay behind me."

OoO

(An hour before)

"From the Empires Infantry, Sergeant Juzo Aritomo." The man spoke, his head held high and his hands as stiff as wood at his side. "These two are my subordinates, Corporals Hide and Satsuma." The man raised his hand to indicate to the two heavily dressed men who saluted after their names being mentioned.

The Chief watched them incredulously as they introduced themselves to him and the two people behind him. He had never seen any kind of soldiers of the Empire act so professionally, usually they assumed they could do whatever they wanted, but these three seemed to be interestingly different. "Please, Sergeant Aritomo. There is no need to be so formal." The elder man said, smiling at the three men, "but to be courteous, I am Hata, Chief of this here village. The two behind me are my councilors; Sugi and Haru. It is a pleasure to meet you three." The elder chief formally introduced, even bowing slightly as he concluded.

"Not to be taken as an insult but, what are _Empire_ soldiers doing this far North?" One of Hata's councilors questioned as he rose from his bow. Hata himself was going to pop the question as well, but with a bit more coaxing. His councilors were always much more blunt than he ever was, but despite how much even Hata wanted to know the answer to that question, he could not deny these men entry to their village, and judging from the pale faces and slight shivering coming from the two lower ranking officers, they also needed a warm cup of tea and a hot fire to warm up to.

"_Firstly_," Hata spoke before Juzo could open his mouth to answer the question, "I insist on you and your men coming inside to warm up."

"That would be... Most kind of you, uh-Hata-san?" Juzo said, unsure of how to address the elder man as they entered the village following the Chief and his councilors.

"Please, just Hata. I don't do well with formalities."

The military man just nodded as he looked around the village, watching as small kids played in the snow and adults walked around doing chores. He had noticed that there was a large number of women compared to the small amount of men and couldn't help but wonder where the other men were.

"Hata-san," one of Juzo's men spoke up, Satsuma, "Uh, where is all of your village's men?"

"Ah, they must all be busy outside of the village, some go out and collect firewood and some go and hunt for food to feed their families and anyone else within the village, whilst the women, stay here to watch over the kids, unless they decide to hunt with the men." Hata informed, nodding his head as he went along, before opening a door to a rather large estate.

As the three soldiers walked into the estate, they were enveloped within a warmth that they couldn't help but be attracted towards the source, a somewhat large fire burning behind a brick fireplace. "It's… It's so warm in here." One of Juzo's subordinates said, Hide, they had been to most of the places in the North but none seemed to be this warm, it was certainly a good change.

"Yes, this place is heavily insulated, along with the large fire burning, it is extremely warm." One of the Chiefs councilors explained, his old voice drawn out.

The three soldiers familiarized themselves with the place, removing their heavy jackets as the room was warm enough to be without it, they made their way over to where Hata was seated near the fireplace. "Please, sit." The chief offered, nodding toward the seats on the opposite side of Hata's own chair.

"We shall go prepare the tea and some things for you to eat." The two elder councilmen spoke as they made their way to what Juzo had to assume was a kitchen.

"Right," Hata announced, hands clapping together, "down to business then."

At that, Juzo sat up straight, hands coming to clasp in front of him. This was the part Juzo didn't like, he had done it multiple times with the other Northern tribes and villages but he couldn't seem to stop the nagging feeling that it was wrong. "Right…"

"So… Why are Empire soldiers so far North?"

"Well, originally, I and my General's army were headed toward the Eastern Cities, to discuss things that are un-related to this." Juzo began, "but along the way there, we were stopped and an order from the Emperor had gotten to us, commanding us to go north." Juzo concluded, leaving parts out intentionally, but Hata knew. He may have been old but he was far more experienced at this then Juzo. "And? That does not answer my question, _why_ are you here."

There it was, straight out the pan and into the fire. "Me, Hide, Satsumi and others from different armies were all chosen to head here, to the North to implement a new law over the land."

"And that law would be?"

Juzo took a deep breath before releasing it and speaking, "the necessary and compulsory conscription of your most talented child."

The Chief stared at Juzo, processing the information, "and if I do not abide by this law?"

"If you do not hand the child over then you will be stripped of these lands, and in the case that you decide to fight back, you and your village will be… 'Put down'" Juzo concluded, his hands coming up in quotation marks.

The Chief sighed, scratching his balding head, "then I'm left with no choice."

"I do not wish to do this, believe me. But-"

"Yes orders are orders, I've heard it before," the elder man said, rising from his chair, "If you would excuse me, I need a moment to think things over." Hata then grabbed his cap, and walked out the door.

Juzo clicked his tongue, before looking to his subordinates who had been listening whilst trying to keep warm by the fire, before his attention was then drawn by the soft foot-falls of one of the councilors. "Tea?"

OoO

(An hour after, with Tatsumi)

They walked through the village noticing the lack of men, Tatsumi assumed that they had all gone to go hunting. One day he would also have to do the same thing, but only after he had completed his self-imposed mission of going to the capital and bringing his home out of poverty through the funds he would accumulate through the military. Ieyasu and Sayo had decided they wanted to join him in his endeavor when Hideki had come to the village as 'a home away from home' and that had been years ago, he had long since retired from the military after the loss of his left eye and, his first destination was here as he had nowhere else to go, at least not anywhere he felt comfortable.

Tatsumi had looked up the ex-militant when he had first met him, the man's tales of war and how he was respected and revered within the military as a high ranking officer had awed Tatsumi at the time and, he had wanted nothing more than to be just like Hideki, he wanted the glory, the stories and the respect he had earned. Tatsumi still wanted that, just his priorities had changed somewhat.

He waved at the small kids who were playing about in the snow and smiled at the mothers who carried wash boards at their sides and socialized with other mothers. His smile slowly dropped as he looked forward toward the Chief and Hideki, the two closest things he had to parents in his life. He didn't have a mother nor a father, but Hideki had become a somewhat father figure to him and the Chief a grandfather and, despite his own lack there-of parents, he would go out and fight for the kids of this village to keep theirs.

They neared the main estate within the village and still couldn't help the surprise that he felt whenever he saw the building, it was just so large and considering the state of his village, it was so out of place. Everyone in the village would gather here for festivals, dinners and anything the Chief felt inclined to inform them all about, but this time there was a strange feeling to it, rather than the regular happiness and exuberance that he would feel, it was much calmer and something else that was unknown to him.

"Come on kids." Hideki said, opening the door into the building, they all entered and were instantly hit with a familiar warmth they had felt time and time again. "You need to stop calling us kids, we're almost 17 and you still keep calling us that."

Hideki laughed, his large hand coming to rest on Ieyasu's shoulder, "I met you three when you were all kids so you remained as kids to me." Hideki then stepped forward past Tatsumi to the Chief and began to converse again.

The three people who were seated within the hall near the fire place didn't go unnoticed by him nor his two childhood friends. "Who are these guys?" Tatsumi heard Sayo speak from his left, her answer came in the form of a shrug, "they look like old friends of Hideki…" Ieyasu commented, watching as their pseudo master conversed and traded handshakes between himself and one of the three men.

Hideki then looked to them as he signalled them over, "kids, this here is one of my old subordinates in the military. Sergeant Juzo Aritomo." The single eyed man introduced to them, "I remember not 10 years ago when you were nothing but a recruit in the Empire when you were first placed under my command." Hideki relived, before clamping a hand on Juzo's shoulder. "But my how times have changed huh?"

"Yeah, I used to look up to you General, and even though I'm no General, I've now got people who look up to me." Juzo said looking over at his two subordinates.

"Boy! You saved my life, don't you dare discredit yourself, you're a war hero my friend."

"Sergeant!" The voice of his subordinate chimed in as Juzo looked over his shoulder at the two who were conversing with the Chief, "I suppose… These are kids that he brought with him huh?" Getting a nod out of his old comrade, the man sighed. "Let's get this over with."

Tatsumi was confused, what the hell where they talking about? One minute they're reminiscing on times long gone and the next they're talking about him, Sayo and Ieyasu. They followed after the two military men obviously, they had nowhere else to go and Tatsumi was just way to curious as to what was going on.

"Sergeant Aritomo… As per what we previously talked about, I have decided to comply with this new law, on the condition that only _one_ child goes." Tatsumi was even more bewildered, where were they going and which _one_ of them would be going.

"Which one?"

"… Tatsumi, come here." The Chief said softly, signalling him over as Tatsumi stood in front of the elder man, his gloved hands grabbed onto the sides of his shoulders. "These men here… They need you- _We _in the village need you to go with them."

Tatsumi looked at the man questioningly, "why?"

"Because the village… It will be lost if you do not leave with these men," the Chief of the village explained, his eyes locked into Tatsumi's green ones. "Do you understand?"

Tatsumi looked back into the eyes of the elder man, his eyebrows narrowing he shrugged off the man's grip on his arms, "yeah I understand…"

"Okay, so then it is settl-"

"What I don't understand is why _me?!_"

"Tatsumi you need to understand it's not a matter of who goes-"

"Then why am I going?"

"Tatsumi, listen to me-" The elder man tried to reason again.

"It doesn't make any sense for me to go!"

"Tatsumi-"

"Of _all_ people in the village-"

"Tatsumi!" The loud and gruff voice of Hideki bellowed throughout the estate, commanding everyone's attention. Tatsumi's eyes widened, he had never heard his teachers voice be used so loudly.

"You would forsake _all _the training I put you under!"

"Sensei-"

"I did not train you because I believed you were strong!" Tatsumi's eyes widened even further, "I did not train you because you were adept at swordplay!"

"I trained you because I _believed_ you were wiser beyond your years, because of your will to keep going forward, because of your _selflessness_. So boy you better stop acting like a child and start acting like the soldier I've been busting my ass off training you to be!" Tatsumi swallowed his saliva to wet his dry throat, he glued his eyes to the ground as he clenched his fists at his sides. "Tatsumi…"

He looked up at voice of whom he had all but forgotten were there with him. His emerald eyes met with the black and brown of Sayo and Ieyasu, they nodded to him and that was all he needed to make his mind up, but as he began to turn to face the three Empire men he felt a solid hit to the back of his neck before he felt his vision fade and he hit the floor. The muffled screams of Sayo and the loud questioning of Ieyasu, he could see the movement of their mouths, but could not distinguish the words being said as he blacked out.

The last thing he saw was of the Imperial man standing over him.

* * *

Yaaay, I made the first chapter! And It was awesome I hope, I felt it was.

Anyway, this story is something I plan on doing for long term – Maybe like 60 or so chapters – and so the updates will be erratic as with my other story and this, it may get clustered depending on the mood I'm in, but I can say for sure that I'm more excited for this than it may seem.

Anyway hope you enjoyed!

Grimmaced – Signing out.


	2. Joie de vivre

Congrats to Mayweather on becoming boxing's TBOTE and beating Pac-man, not entirely sure on how to feel, most of my family are Filo so it was like watching a national tragedy…

I do not own Akame Ga Kill.

* * *

Tatsumi awoke to the constant rattling and shaking of what appeared to be a carriage. He sat up from his position, adjusting to his newfound surroundings. As he raised himself up, the carriage hit suddenly unexpected bump and jolted his body forward unbalancing him and sending him crashing back into the floor of the carriage.

"You alright bud?" A voice he had never heard before asked of him as he began to raise himself up again. Tatsumi looked over at the new voice and recognised it to be one a man, somewhat older than he was. "Yeah… I'm fine." Tatsumi said slowly standing and using the carriage roof too hold him up.

He looked around and began to notice his surroundings, it was not just him and this other man in the carriage, there were multiple people cooped up in here, at least 10 people lined the sides of the carriage, all seeking each other out for rest and to socialise. It was then that the smell and heat of the carriage finally hit him making him cringe harder than anything in his life. It smelled of human waste and body odour, it was vile and he felt the contents of his stomach rising up through his throat, ready to spill onto carriage floor but, he fought the feeling down, not willing to add to the already disturbing smell. The heat made him feel drowsy as if he had not just awoken from a long slumber but rather waking up in the middle of the day, thirsty not sure where you were in the world.

'_Where exactly am I?'_

It was entirely obvious to him that they were no longer in the north, but much, _much_ farther away, somewhere south from what he could tell from the overbearing and oppressive heat that was commonly associated with the sun just as the north and snow.

He shut his eyes to grab hold of himself and control his exceedingly drowsy and foggy state of mind, he could feel a head ache forming at the forefront of his mind and the instability and sudden jolts of the carriage was not helping any. How any of the people around him could sleep was beyond him, he didn't even know how he slept…

Why the hell was he asleep in the first place…

Why was he even here?

The only things he remembered before he woke up here was training with Sayo, Ieyasu and Hideki, other than that, he had no idea what was going on.

"Hey… Where you from?" The man from before spoke to him, Tatsumi turned to face the man, he looked ragged and rather sleep-less judging by the eye bags forming under his eyes.

Tatsumi was brought out of his reverie when the man nudged his leg and asked again, this time Tatsumi gave the man an answer. "North…"

"North? Damn…"

Tatsumi didn't like the way the man said that, it gave off a sense of foreboding and Tatsumi was not entirely comfortable with the idea of some random man telling him some kind of devastating news. "What do you mean _damn_?"

"That's a long way from here, most of the people in this carriage are from the West."

Tatsumi stared at the man perplexed, all he had to say was that he was a long way from the North?

He already knew that, he wasn't entirely oblivious, he knew the difference between the cold and hot. How he had ended up in a carriage full of people that apparently _not_ from the north was beyond him . "So just where the hell are we?"

"In the South, like South-east or something." The man said with a shrug of the shoulders, unable to give Tatsumi any more information other than that, he was still going to try anyway.

"Where are we going?"

"Boot camp."

"Boot camp?" Tatsumi asked inquisitively.

"Yeah, didn't they tell you? You got conscripted into the Imperial Army."

Conscripted? Imperial Army? This was the first time he had-

'_Sayo! Ieyasu!'_

Tatsumi's headache finally hit him full force as he witnessed a flash back, gripping his head he groaned in pain as the memories came flooding back to him. The man, no, men who conscripted him, the Chief, his mentor and his friends. He remembered now, "god…"

"You sure you're alright man?" The man questioned, the hesitance in his voice was evident as he had no idea what was happening to Tatsumi.

"Yeah I'm fine… I just- I just need to sit down, don't worry about it…" He said, waving the man off as he sat down onto a spare spot on the long seat along the side of the carriage. He remembered everything now and, to say he was annoyed was an understatement.

He was furious.

He was willing to accept his responsibility and be conscripted and right as he was going to tell the officer – _Juzo_ – he gets knocked unconscious!

And the worst part was that no one had even tried to stop them knocking him out… Was he really being that much of a nuisance that they needed to knock him out in order for him to follow along?

"_Stop acting like a child and start acting like the Soldier I've been busting my ass off training you to be!" _

He cringed at the memory, he had really let his mentor and himself down, since when was he selfish enough to believe that his own life was more valuable than that someone else's in the village. If someone had told him he would say that, _in front_ of both the Chief and Hideki, he would have laughed so hard his lung would have been coughed out, but he guessed it was a heat of the moment type of thing, one where he just kind of blurted it out without actually thinking. That was one thing he knew he had done a lot of in the past.

As a tremor shook the carriage once again, he couldn't help but have his mind drift off to both Sayo and Ieyasu, and wondered what they could possibly be doing right now.

OoO

(Tatsumi, Sayo &amp; Ieyasu's village)

"Square your shoulders and raise your bow Sayo!" Hideki exclaimed into her ear, his booming voice shocking her into moving along with what he said. She breathed in and held her breath as she lined up the arrow with the target drawn onto a tree. Releasing her breath she steadied her hands and, "release!" Shocked out of her tranquil state of mind as her hand released and her shot was thrown completely off and her arrow was sent soaring through the snowy forest.

"Again Sayo."

Her face clenched in anger, how the hell was she meant to hit the target if he kept yelling at her when she was about to shoot the arrow. She reached behind her and brought another arrow to drawback as she instead of focusing, just lined up the shot and let the arrow fly through the air. The projectile hit the tree but was nowhere near the target.

"What was that Sayo?" The veteran spoke behind her speaking of the arrow she sent into the forest to never be found again, she could feel his single eye ridiculing her and she did not like it. "Are you getting… Angry?" The large man questioned as if the idea was completely foreign to him and it was, Sayo never got angry, she was the most level-headed person he had ever met in his life.

"Of course I'm angry!" She yelled at the large man, sending him back a step, "I can't take the shot if _you_ keep being so loud!" She exclaimed her hair coming over to cover the left side of her face, giving her a much more menacing look than she herself knew she was giving.

Hideki was at a loss for words, in as many years that he had been teaching this young woman he had never seen her so mad. "Is it… _That_ time?"

Sayo raised an eyebrow at what he had said, not understanding what he was trying to convey.

"You know, _that_ time." Hideki tried to make her understand, this time using gestures by pointing toward his own lower extremities.

What the hell? What was he- Sayo's eyes widened as what he was trying to tell her connected, "What? Ew- No, stop doing that." Where the hell was Ieyasu when she needed him?

"Only trying to help."

"You can start by never doing that again, gross-oldman." Hideki's laugh was boisterous as Ieyasu walked into the clearing.

"Just where the hell have you been? We were meant to start training an hour ago?" Sayo said, turning to face Ieyasu as he walked closer to them, his axe hung over his shoulder, "around."

"Doesn't matter where you were, what matters is that you're here now and ready to train I believe?" The single eyed veteran said.

"Of course, just 'casue Sumi-chan had a head start doesn't mean I'll let him get ahead of me." Ieyasu said, grinning at the large man.

"And you Sayo?"

She eyed Ieyasu and his grin and couldn't stop the compelling feeling that his grin induced within her and felt inclined to give off a grin of her own. "I've got no other choice do I. Who else is going to look after your dumbass."

"Then today we begin. If you both wish to keep up and one day catch Tatsumi, then training is no longer going to be called training." The former general spoke, his large arms coming to cross over his chest.

"Then what…" Ieyasu said, lowering his axe from his shoulder.

"Today, you two are no longer just 'kids', you're now potential soldiers. During our time together you will be treated as such, you listen and follow _all_ of my commands. Is this understood?" Hideki questioned, getting a nod from the two he gave the two a small grin.

"Then welcome to the Grind."

OoO

(The carriage)

Tatsumi had been sat in the carriage just staring out of one of the square window like holes that provided them with a view to the outside as well as fresh air, which was not the case as the 'fresh air' was never fresh unless he stuck his whole head through the square and he had done that.

A majority of the people in the carriage had begun to stir from their respective sleeps. The ones who had fully awoken he had taken to talking to just to pass time until they reached this boot camp. He had heard stories from all sorts of people as to why they were there, a lot of them came from apparent military families, which surprised Tatsumi considering that he did not come from anyone military aside from maybe Hideki who he doubted counted as a reason to conscript him.

As he thought, he felt the slowing down of the carriage and proceeded to look out of the square window and see what was happening, as he did this his vision was slowly filled with the slow approach of multiple large barracks that towered over the wall surrounding them which were manned by people who he could only make out due to distance between them and the entrance.

"What's going on, why're we stopping?" A voice from behind asked him.

"I'm not too sure, I think we're at the base…" He replied, removing his head from the square opening, before retaking his seat.

"You're kidding? We're finally here?"

"I suppose." Tatsumi spoke as the man stood to have look out the opening himself. "Haha! We really are here!"

Tatsumi couldn't understand the man's excitement, wasn't this one of the worst things to happen to him? Why was he so celebratory?

"Get your head back inside!" One of the officers yelled as the carriage came to a stop. The excited man cheered again before re-entering the carriage. The man didn't even sit instead stood there with a large grin plastered onto his face as he watched the doors, waiting for them to open.

Tatsumi couldn't help but also be enraptured by those doors opening, it had apparently been close to three days since some of these people had been conscripted, he had only spent a day in the carriage and he was hungry, tired and thirsty. He couldn't imagine what people like the man in front of him had endured with the only idea of salvation being the military base.

"Stand back, doors are opening!" An Imperial soldier exclaimed banging against the wooden doors.

The blinding rays of the sun forcefully entered the carriage, and the people who were awake and had not seen any part of the sun groaned averting and shielding their eyes. The sun's rays did not really affect him as he had been using the square opening quite frequently and was thus exposed more than anyone else in the carriage, but the light was still very intrusive and made him squint his eyes partially before it died down to reveal two Imperial officers, scowls set firmly in place.

"Rise 'n shine sleeping beauties! Time to move." One of the officers commanded and they all stood, making their way out of the carriage.

Tatsumi absorbed his surroundings, there were multiple people who lined the top sides of the walls and men who ran on the ground in formation in front of them. Men and women were walking to and from things, the place was like a bustling city, the uniform was very distinct in a way that what almost everyone was wearing happened to be red, red shirt, red pants, red hats. Red everything.

"Alright ladies and gents, form up and make a line." One of the officers commanded them, walking up and down the line straightening their postures.

"Commanding officer, salute!" One of the Imperial men exclaimed as both officers brought a fist up across their chest as a man walked toward them before inspecting the two officers. "At ease…"

They dropped their fisted arms and stood straight as a plank of wood, their eyes directed upward. The Commanding officer then turned his attention to them, eyeing them all with contempt.

"Why are there useless sacks of meat inside of _my_ compound?" The high ranking officer spoke, viciousness oozing out of his voice.

"They were sent as part of the program sir. These are the conscripted."

"Should I be expecting more to fill in through my gates?"

"Yes sir."

Tatsumi watched this interaction, noticing that the man was not wearing red like all the other people within the large compound, but instead his colouring was that of a grey tone, he didn't know why, nor did he want to know why so he summed it up to the man being of a higher rank than everyone else on the base. Tatsumi was brought out of his reverie when the man snapped his head over to the line he was in, he looked away instantly.

The man began a walk down the line of men and women, eyeing everyone up and down, scrutinizing them. "So, you lot are the ones chosen as the Empire's _brightest_? How unfortunate, the future of the Empire is supposed to rest in your hands and none of you look like you're willing to accept such a burden." The Commanding officer spoke, going up and down along the line of conscriptions before stopping suddenly. "But I refuse to allow that to happen. I'll beat every one of you into the ground before picking you back up again only to put you back down! You are all now men of the Imperial Army! And we – _especially me_ –don't allow for shrimp like you to just to walk around claiming to be a Soldier! I am now your father, mother, sister &amp; brother, you follow my instructions, and you do as I say. _Do you understand me?!_" The high ranking officer exclaimed directly in Tatsumi's face, his eyes widened and his nose flaring out wide. Tatsumi was too shocked to give an appropriate answer as the saliva of the Commanding officer flew out onto his face.

The resounding 'yes' he heard from them was satisfactory to him as he leaned away from Tatsumi to continue his patrolling of them all, up and down the line. "I will train you, I will teach you. You will sleep when I tell you to, you will move, eat &amp; dress _when_ I tell you too. I am not here to make you comfortable, I will not listen to your personal problems. I am not here to fluff your god damn pillows."

The officer than stood directly in the middle of the line, arms held behind his back before sighing and looking over to a small group of joggers. "Corporal Mako!"

Corporal Mako broke away from his small group to make his way toward the Commanding officer. The Corporal bowed his head before addressing the officer. "Yes Commander."

"Gear these muppets up and show them how we treat new recruits." The 'Commander' said with a small grin, his grin was matched by the Corporal who eyed them all. "Yes sir."

"Welcome to boot-camp!" The Commanding officer exclaimed.

* * *

"UP!"

Tatsumi followed the command immediately, rising from the wet dirt on the ground, he was breathing deeply, his lungs burning yearning for him to inhale at a deeper and faster rate, his heart was pounding faster than he thought possible. Everything happened so fast that he didn't entirely know exactly how they got into this situation. In the span of over an hour and a half he had been allocated a room with three other people, given the red uniform the rest of the people were wearing around the compound, thrown into a shower, changed into the uniform which only consisted of a cotton red shirt, long red baggy pants that were tucked into his black leather boots, but to increase their workload, they were also given heavy metal plates to wear underneath the clothing. The speed of which Corporal Mako had them working to get changed and ready was insane, they were given items that they didn't know what went where and were told to be ready in less than 5 minutes otherwise they would have to be held back for "HFCT" as Mako had put it.

The training that came after wasn't too bad, it was more or less endurance to see how long they could last like running, planking and wall scaling were all a part of the course they all ran, obviously some collapsed or even vomited, but that was to be expected of people who, despite being physically gifted in a sense, were not conditioned to the degree that these guys at the compound expected of them. Luckily for Tatsumi he had been training like this for a long time under Hideki so it was almost second nature to him.

But as Mako had said, they needed to be ready in less than 5 minutes and, Tatsumi didn't know how to do that, Hideki never trained him to time the speed of which he would change into a change of clothes. So here he was, at the HFCT, which he learnt before they begun meant 'Hang Fire Conditioning Training' and Tatsumi had never felt so burned out in his entire life, not even Hideki's Spartan training matched up to this and he hated doing the Spartan training.

"GET THOSE KNEES HIGHER BOY, IF THOSE KNEES AINT REACHING YOUR PRETTY LITTLE EYES I SWEAR TO GOD-"

"-YES SIR!" Tatsumi interrupted the trainer. Tatsumi's eyes clenched shut as he tried to bring his legs higher in case of suffering the trainers apparent wrath and reaping the consequence of restarting the whole course again. He breathed in and out every time he brought his knees up, he could feel them beginning to fail on him and begin to slow.

"DROP AND CRAWL!"

He instantly dropped into the wet earthen soil, the mud splashed up covering a part of his cheek. Using his elbows, he began to drag himself through the muddy earth, his hair matted on his forehead with sweat and mud. The metal plates he had worn underneath his clothing and plus the added weight of the thick mud sticking to his clothes was really wearing on him, he could feel the pain of tomorrow already setting in. He could hear the long drawn out groans of the other people who were there with him, experiencing the same pain he was.

"MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS!" The trainer exclaimed as they all rose off the ground slightly, their hands and feet still connected to the ground before skipping their legs back and forth as fast as they could.

The splash of someone crashing into the moist earth was heard beside him as he looked over the person was breathing extremely hard, the woman beside him didn't even care as her face was covered in mud. The mud then splashed everywhere as the trainer forced his boot down into her back, pushing her further into the mud, "Did I say stop?" The man removed his boot as he reached down to pull the girl out of the dirt by the collar of her shirt. The girls eyes were shut as the trainer moved around she just seemed to go with it, her body ragdolling with his movements. Tatsumi could only assume that she was either knocked out or dead, but from her shallow breathing, she was only unconscious.

The rest of them around kept up the pace of their mountain climbers, this exercise was one of the easier ones, it actually gave them time to get control of their bodies.

"STOP!" The trainer exclaimed again, voice booming. They all followed the command and dropped their bodies into the mud just as the woman had done before. If only she waited a bit longer…

"You all see this?" The trainer spoke pointing at the unconscious woman, "This is what we here at this very compound try to weed out, if this is what your will adds up to, then you are _not_ Imperial quality!" The trainer said, dropping the woman back into the dirt face up. "Do not believe that this training is hard, believe that this training is only an wall! An obstacle! You must climb it, break it down, go around it. I don't care what you have to do, just get over it! In the coming weeks of your Induction here, you will be tested, pushed to your mental and physical limits. I'm not buttering it up for you because you need to learn now that this _will _be hard! And if you cannot live up to the expectations of being the future of this great Empire then I'll send you home in a damn casket."

They all raised themselves out of the dirt to listen to the trainers words, "now get up, get back to your rooms to rest, you're going to need it, AND IF ANY OF YOU END UP BACK HERE I SWEAR TO GOD-"

"-YES SIR!" They all exclaimed loudly.

* * *

The sun was finally beginning to set when Tatsumi had made it to his allocated room, he had gone and gotten himself cleaned up, replacement clothes being provided for him. He was so tired, he had barely made it to the door before feeling like he just wanted to collapse, anywhere looked comfortable to sleep on, just so long as he slept he didn't care, but he had a bed for a reason and he would be damned if he didn't even a small amount of comfort out of this gruelling day.

The teen reached for the door handle and twisted it open and walked in to an empty room aside from the two sleeping on bunk beds, noticing the empty bed of one of his new found roommates, he looked at the empty bed incredulously before sleep began to plague his mind and he walked over to the bottom part of the bunk bed and threw the metal plates he had been told to keep as he threw himself on after, the comforting embrace of the soft springy mattress was like a small slice of his own personal heaven, he had never in his life felt such relief. Stretching his body out over the mattress he looked over to a small dresser next to his head and noticed a small wooden idol with a small note attached to the bottom. "What the…"

He reached over, picking up the idol before analysing the intricacies of the small wooden object. His eyes widened as he recognised the little designs that were scratched into the idol covering it in little marks. "No way." He whispered, not wishing to disturb his neighbours.

He pulled to the note away from the idol before placing it back down onto the dresser, unfolding it he read the contents. He immediately recognised the crude and scraggily hand writing of Ieyasu.

'_Dear Sumi-chan, I hope you get this, because if you didn't and it gets returned to us because your idiot self died somehow, I'll be really pissed.' _Tatsumi couldn't help but smile at that. Ieyasu was completely blunt, apparently that translated to paper as well.

'_I, Sayo and some others wanted to write you this so you weren't left with questions and anger and some other stuff the Chief told me to write but I can't remember, the Chief told me that he is sorry for what happened, that he never asked for it to happen, especially not to you and that he hopes you understand that he had no other choice. Hideki said that despite what he said, he's extremely proud of you Sumi-chan, the old man even said that you were even better than me, like what? He also says to never forget him, because when were all famous and stuff, and he's all old and rusty he wants us to give him money… Stingy old man.' _Tatsumi chuckled before quieting himself and looked over at the two sleeping. When he was sure they wouldn't awaken, he began to read again.

'_Sayo didn't say much, all she said was that when she would find you –And she will, she's extremely persistent remember – and when she does she's going to 'beat you so hard like nothing you'd ever experienced.' She also said to be careful, she doesn't want you to die, and neither do I, who else is gonna be my competition? No one else can match my greatness. Anyway Tatsumi this is all I can write without needing another paper. So I'll say this, all we want, is to see you again. We never even got to say goodbye before they took you so I guess this counts, goodbye for now Tatsumi. Me an Sayo will see you again for sure! _

_Take care and I love you brother.'_

Tatsumi hung onto those last few words, reading it over a couple times before laughing as he felt the wetness of tears begin to fall across his cheeks, putting the paper underneath his pillow, he flopped back down into the bed wrapping himself in the blanket and chuckled lightly to himself before sighing and closing his eyes.

"Love you too idiot."

* * *

Chapter End. Hit me up with a review and tell me your thoughts.

Second chapter whoo. This story is actually pretty fun to write, I've actually put a lot more thought into this than I have with my Naruto story, although I don't write as much as I do in this story compared to the Naruto one, but that's okay, these chapters should progressively get longer the more I indulge myself into it.

I'm sure there are spelling mistakes everywhere in this chapter, I have proof read it, like three times but if you spot any than my bad.

Also, I'm not entirely sold on what Teigu I should give Tatsumi, I have a few almost definite ideas going, but your guy's input would be fantastic. Hope you enjoyed the story.

Grimmaced – Signing out.


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